


Small Crime

by IdleLeaves



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-24 19:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10748259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdleLeaves/pseuds/IdleLeaves
Summary: Reynir seeks out Onni to explain his lie.





	Small Crime

It's raining in Onni's haven. Reynir didn't even know that was possible, but he's soaked before he's made it twenty paces into the sparse, grey forest. He pushes his wet hair out of his eyes and continues on.

He doesn't, fortunately, have to search for long. He finds Onni where he's found him before, on a rocky ledge along a lake stippled with water-lilies. None are in bloom; their buds are small, closed tight. Onni's eyes are closed, as well, and he sits still and silent, his back against the rocks.

Reynir approaches with caution. He hopes Onni will speak with him - or at least listen to what he needs to say - but he can't help remembering last time, and before that, the first time they met. "Hello?" he ventures, after a long moment of contemplation, of hesitation.

Onni turns his head, slowly, to look at him; the expression on his face is neutral, but his eyes - his eyes are reddened, damp, and Reynir doesn't think it's from the rain. He feels a pang of sympathy, and a twist of guilt, deep in his gut.

It should have been him.

He has to take a moment to breathe before he can speak again. 

"I wanted, ah," he starts, "to talk to you?" His voice wavers on the last word, turns the phrase into a question. "I need to explain. Please. You need to know why I didn't - why I didn't tell you." He keeps going, hoping to get the words out before Onni tells him to stop - or worse. "I just thought - well. I thought it would be better, see, if you heard it from--"

"You lied to me," Onni interrupts.

"Yes," admits Reynir. He has to look away from Onni, then; he stares at the ground beneath his feet like a scolded child, rain dripping from his hair and the end of his nose. "I just--"

Onni, again, cuts him off. "I understand why you did."

"... You do?" Reynir says, and something like relief rushes over him. "I mean. You do. So it's okay. It's fine. Everything is fine."

"No," says Onni, voice low and rough. "It isn't."

Reynir can't manage a reply to that - not for lack of words, but for too many of them, all tangled together in his head. He looks around for a place to sit, but there's nowhere save for beside Onni, and he's sure he doesn't want to push his luck that far.

"Do you--" he starts again, once he thinks he can. "Would you want to know more?"

Onni's eyes are suddenly sharp. "Is there more to know?" he asks.

"No," Reynir says, too quickly. "I didn't mean that. I just meant - if something happens. If she can't tell you herself - sorry, sorry," he says, as Onni takes a deep breath. "I just meant if... the radio's broken, or something. Or if you're... resting, again. Would you want me to come here? To tell you?"

For a near-endless moment Onni is silent, the muscles working in his jaw. Then, he nods. "Yes. If Tuuri can't," and he swallows, thickly, "tell me herself, I'll trust you to keep me informed."

"Okay," says Reynir, and it doesn't seem like enough. He stands there for a moment longer, hands twisted together in front of him, waiting for a response that doesn't come. "I... I think I'll go now," he says, and takes two steps back.

Onni looks lost in thought, gazing across the lake through the rain to the firs on the farther shore. He nods in Reynir's direction, and Reynir turns to retrace his own muddy steps to the shore. It takes all of his willpower, as he retreats, not to run.


End file.
